Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #84

[Knitty]

We can agree to disagree on this. There's no way that most people I know would have gone without masks since March. Everyone I know, regardless of party affiliation, wears a mask when out of their own homes. It would never have occurred to most people to politicize masks.

I agree with you. The most ardent supporters that I don't on BOTH sides have been wearing masks since March. I believe the anti-masking crowd are a highly vocal/highly visible minority.

 

[dixiegirl1035]

EU urged to review remdesivir supply deal after Covid-19 trial results

BRUSSELS (Oct 16): The European Union should renegotiate a 1 billion euro ($1.2 billion) contract it sealed last week with Gilead for a six-month supply of the Covid-19 drug remdesivir after it showed poor results in a large trial, experts said on Friday.

In a blow to one of the few drugs being used to treat people with Covid-19, the Solidarity Trial conducted by the World Health Organization showed that remdesivir appeared to have little or no effect on mortality or length of hospital stays among patients with the respiratory disease.

That's strange. Thanks, I'm going to have to go back and review as I thought the mortality reductions wasn't affected, but all the trials are showing reduction from average of 15 to 11 or 10 days in decreased hospital stay. I'll have to drill down later to the original articles/studies but I just read them in the last day or two.

 

[ilovewings]

Official number is that 14% are functionally illiterate. That means below 6th grade level; person struggles to remember one sentence while attempting to follow the next sentence. 6th graders are supposed to be able to read and pull out the main conclusions/ideas of a paragraph.

But I agree with you that it's actually higher than that. Of course, my bias is that I mostly teach young adults. I've taught in more places than just California, and it was not any different (W. Texas, NM, Washington state). My good friend, who studies this issue, says same for her work in Massachusetts (where it's clearly better than in NM) and in Illinois.

What I notice is reading fatigue. If I put too many questions on a test (say...more than 10-12?), the ability to answer correctly takes a dive at about the 8th question. So, sustained reading is difficult for many people. That's why so many people read the headline and think it truly summarizes an article - but...well...it's rarely that simple.

It is precisely for this reason that Cogent consistent leadership coming from the office of the president, CDC and WHO, is so important. There are just lots and lots of people who really don't understand the concept of a pandemic or how easily it spreads: then there are those who don't care, but with a cogent consistent message those outliers might have cooperated at the beginning of this thing. Now it is just too late. I have heard people at Trump rallies say if Trump would tell them to wear a mask they would. I don't need to be told: you don't need to be told: but lots of people need to be told what to do---

As I think about it, I also think some education would have helped in conjunction with the recommendations: that might include visuals to make people understand exactly how it spreads, why it spreads, etc --instead of just saying wear a mask, social distance and wash your hands. It is too late now but it could have had a positive impact in the beginning.

 

[CharlestonGal]

That's strange. Thanks, I'm going to have to go back and review as I thought the mortality reductions wasn't affected, but all the trials are showing reduction from average of 15 to 11 or 10 days in decreased hospital stay. I'll have to drill down later to the original articles/studies but I just read them in the last day or two.

It's the Solidarity Trial conducted by the WHO. I've linked directly to the results on the WHO website.

"The Solidarity Trial published interim results on 15 October 2020. It found that all 4 treatments evaluated (remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir and interferon) had little or no effect on overall mortality, initiation of ventilation and duration of hospital stay in hospitalized patients.

The Solidarity Trial is considering evaluating other treatments, to continue the search for effective COVID-19 therapeutics.

So far, only corticosteroids have been proven effective against severe and critical COVID-19."

“Solidarity” clinical trial for COVID-19 treatments

 

[tresir2012]

Oh, yes, it IS too late for that plan to work. Had the U.S. approached COVID as this plan indicates, our continent could have been in the same shape as Australia right now. Instead, our leadership chose to be adversarial instead of cooperative.

Australia's leadership were also adversarial with WHO and requested an investigation which is in progress. So it is not as simple as that IMO. Mexico also signed up to that plan and have been severely affected by Covid too.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Oh dear...more superspreaders this weekend, and this time it appears they happened in all 50 states. I do see masks, but I also see shoulder-to-shoulder standing.

When will people learn?

using "clickbait" by labeling this "superspreader" is rather misleading, at best. . The article is about all the women who have been coming together every four years.
EVERYONE wears masks, and social distancing is followed as best as possible.
If you were really there, you would see this. Clearly March organizers enforce both masks and social distancing if not immediate families...
Granted the march in my area is smaller, but we were totally masked and distanced.

 

[musicaljoke]

Australia's leadership were also adversarial with WHO and requested an investigation which is in progress. So it is not as simple as that IMO. Mexico also signed up to that plan and have been severely affected by Covid too.

Mexico signed up for the trilateral pandemic plan, but they didn't follow through when CoVid hit.

When the plan was signed, it wasn't on anyone's mind that the Mexican and US government leaders would ignore all the groundwork that had been done, based on lessons learned during the H1N1 2009 pandemic.

 

[tresir2012]

It is precisely for this reason that Cogent consistent leadership coming from the office of the president, CDC and WHO, is so important. There are just lots and lots of people who really don't understand the concept of a pandemic or how easily it spreads: then there are those who don't care, but with a cogent consistent message those outliers might have cooperated at the beginning of this thing. Now it is just too late. I have heard people at Trump rallies say if Trump would tell them to wear a mask they would. I don't need to be told: you don't need to be told: but lots of people need to be told what to do---

As I think about it, I also think some education would have helped in conjunction with the recommendations: that might include visuals to make people understand exactly how it spreads, why it spreads, etc --instead of just saying wear a mask, social distance and wash your hands. It is too late now but it could have had a positive impact in the beginning.

It would have. They have diagrams everywhere now. But initially the advice was no masks except for healthcare and infected people. So the message was messed up from the beginning, which did not help.

 

[Sundog]

Oh dear...more superspreaders this weekend, and this time it appears they happened in all 50 states. I do see masks, but I also see shoulder-to-shoulder standing.

When will people learn?

Sure doesn't look like much social distancing. . .

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Just three examples - Critical infrastructure undamaged, WHO participation, border participation- all are assumed in place in this publication.

Very unclear. I don't understand your point regarding 2020.

 

[Sundog]

Twitter removes White House adviser's tweet saying masks do not prevent COVID-19

Twitter has removed a tweet from White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Scott Atlas that claimed masks don't work to stop the spread of COVID-19.

"Masks work? NO," Atlas had tweeted Saturday, followed by misrepresentations of the science behind the effectiveness of masks in battling the coronavirus pandemic.

Atlas, a neuroradiologist, shared his tweet again later on Saturday, adding that it showed President Donald Trump's guidelines on masks was the "right policy" and no widespread mask mandates were needed.

But Twitter removed Atlas's original tweet by Sunday morning, leaving behind a message that says: "This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules."

A Twitter spokesperson confirmed to Newsweek that Atlas's tweet was in violation of the platform's COVID-19 misleading information policy.

According to Twitter, the policy prohibits sharing false or misleading content related to COVID-19 which could lead to harm. It specifically includes guidance on "statements or assertions that have been confirmed to be false or misleading by subject-matter experts, such as public health authorities."

I think Congress is planning to hold social media accountable for its censorship, based on recent developments, so hopefully this will be addressed as well.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Sure doesn't look like much social distancing. . .

Gee, I think that's because people are looking for comparison superspreaders. Just like the protesters...people want them to look bad, when they were not.

Why? When we need Americans and the world to work together.

The masking is scientifically proven to be the number one condition to practice in a pandemic. That it became so political is not the fault of the scientists.

 

[tresir2012]

If you like interactive, colour graphics, this will blow your mind.

COVID Cases since June by state partisanship

Yes I just selected the deaths since Mar 1st one. See if this shows up.

COVID State-by-state by date total deaths

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Twitter removes White House adviser's tweet saying masks do not prevent COVID-19

Twitter has removed a tweet from White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Scott Atlas that claimed masks don't work to stop the spread of COVID-19.

"Masks work? NO," Atlas had tweeted Saturday, followed by misrepresentations of the science behind the effectiveness of masks in battling the coronavirus pandemic.

Atlas, a neuroradiologist, shared his tweet again later on Saturday, adding that it showed President Donald Trump's guidelines on masks was the "right policy" and no widespread mask mandates were needed.

But Twitter removed Atlas's original tweet by Sunday morning, leaving behind a message that says: "This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules."

A Twitter spokesperson confirmed to Newsweek that Atlas's tweet was in violation of the platform's COVID-19 misleading information policy.

According to Twitter, the policy prohibits sharing false or misleading content related to COVID-19 which could lead to harm. It specifically includes guidance on "statements or assertions that have been confirmed to be false or misleading by subject-matter experts, such as public health authorities."

And I will requote MusicalJoke. ...which is No Joke.

↑
I think if our current leadership had insisted (or even suggested) masking all the time, mandatory masking, etc, we would have the other half of the country refusing to do so just because it came from “the other side”. Either way, we would have half of the country not wanting to cooperate because of political garbage. It’s unfortunate.

It's sad to see such division. It didn't need to happen. Maybe in another time, that wouldn't have happened.

I guess in the end we can come together, to die together....

 

[CharlestonGal]

And I will requote MusicalJoke. ...which is No Joke.

↑
I think if our current leadership had insisted (or even suggested) masking all the time, mandatory masking, etc, we would have the other half of the country refusing to do so just because it came from “the other side”. Either way, we would have half of the country not wanting to cooperate because of political garbage. It’s unfortunate.

It's sad to see such division. It didn't need to happen. Maybe in another time, that wouldn't have happened.

I guess in the end we can come together, to die together....

One wonders what kind of reality we are living in when Twitter has to censor covid misinformation coming directly from the WH.

 

[Sprockett7701]

Oh, so you really do have to holiday at home for the summer then, but you have the whole of Oz right and Tasmania?

Not if Mark McGowan, WA’s premier has his way...we’re hard border lockdown til April next year I believe...

 

[GRT]

using "clickbait" by labeling this "superspreader" is rather misleading, at best. . The article is about all the women who have been coming together every four years.
EVERYONE wears masks, and social distancing is followed as best as possible.
If you were really there, you would see this. Clearly March organizers enforce both masks and social distancing if not immediate families...
Granted the march in my area is smaller, but we were totally masked and distanced.

Crowds of the size in the photo qualify as "superspreaders" I think. A lot of members here have labeled much smaller gatherings as such. I could understand if they were standing a healthy distance apart but the photo shows them all crowded together.

I don't think just because they've done it for four years means it's safe to do this year. In my town, they've held a May Day parade for over 100 years but they didn't hold it this year although everyone promised to social distance.

I just think these types of large gatherings should be postponed until it's safer. When I go somewhere, I always wear a mask, but my glasses fog up. I also see others with fogged glasses, and that tells me that exhaled breath is escaping even though the masks are on.

When people are as close together as they were in the photo, it sure looks like a superspreader to me!

JMOO, of course.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

<modsnipped removed quoted post>

It would have. They have diagrams everywhere now. But initially the advice was no masks except for healthcare and infected people. So the message was messed up from the beginning, which did not help.

We have discussed it extensively over and over on this site. The initial advise was long standing medical information, and was relatively quickly changed to reflect the emergencies of a pandemic. IT was NOT that confusing, and the newer recommendations were made very clear over and over and over.

 

[GRT]

Sure doesn't look like much social distancing. . .

That's what I thought, too. They were so close to one another. I can't help but think we'll see a surge in those communities in a week or so.

 

[GRT]

If you do work from home for your employer, you can still claim the home office deduction. I've been teaching/working from home for 20 years, and have had a dedicated office space for it throughout that time. I use the sf percentage and TurboTax asks a few questions to plug in the numbers.

We can also deduct unreimbursed employee expenses, which as a teacher...there are plenty, everything from dry erase markers and the white boards I use at home to my work computer and cabling).

All you have to do is check the box when it asks whether your employer reimbursed you. This goes for travel outside of commuting, when it's for work, as well.

One does have to qualify to use Schedule A, though.

Most people will get more money back using standard deductions rather than itemizing.